Missoula Crime Report: Huge Number of Cases But ‘Don’t Be Alarmed’

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 29 new felony complaints this week, which is 14 more than last week and way above the weekly average. County Attorney Matt Jennings said not to be alarmed by that high number. 

“We were catching up on some out-of-custody cases,” Jennings said. “We have cases come to us in two ways. Either someone gets arrested and we have some kind of quick time turnaround to get them charged. Or sometimes there might be something like an embezzlement or a theft where they didn't actually apprehend somebody. Those get referred to us and sometimes there's more follow-up and investigation. So those get charged out of custody and we can either summon people into court if they're not a risk to the public or we will do a warrant.” 

According to Jennings, there were 12 violent crimes this week and that is more than normal. 

“We had five crimes of family violence, five crimes of non-family violence, and we had two sexual assaults this week,” Jennings said. “Both of them were pretty serious crimes. We have a special team that is really trained to deal with victims and make sure that we can get those across the finish line to bring justice to victims of sexual violence like that.” 

In addition, Jennings said there were two property crimes, five drug crimes, and one administrative crime which was a fugitive with a warrant from out of state.  

“We had nine endangerment crimes,” Jennings said. “Usually those are related to driving activity, but we did have a few cases this week of children being exposed to drugs. We take those very seriously. We want to make sure we break cycles of intergenerational drug use and making sure that kids are protected is one of the best ways that we can do that.” 

READ MORE: Missoula News - Crime Report

The Missoula County Attorney’s Office provides a weekly crime report every Friday morning at 9:00 on Talk Back. You can listen to Jennings' full report below: